The Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) recent announcement that it is making a quarter of its lands available for private farmers is an initiative that has been welcomed by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU). However, the union does not believe that it will change current production figures as it has failed before.
The union recommends that boosting the wages and salaries of sugar cane planters and other estate workers to a livable income is the only way that a turnaround might be had for the sector that continues to take a beating.
GAWU head, Seepaul Narine, told the Sunday Stabroek that private cane farming is nothing new as it was done throughout the country with the exception of Blairmont.
“Private cane farming in the sugar industry it has always been there. They had done this at Skeldon. Albion had private farmers attached and Rose Hall also had. The only place that had none was Blairmont. So all along there were private farmers. GuySuCo is facing a crisis in terms of the growing of canes for the supply of sugar. When I saw it [article] I was not worried about the lands because it is not anything new. I don’t know if they will able to but I wish them well because they had been experimenting already”, Narine said.
“They had a number of farmers attached to different cultivations and those people have not been turning out to plant their canes. They need to address core issue of the pay level of people in the industry.”
Narine said that many are not aware but while estates were closed during the APNU+AFC’s tenure, 2015 to 2020, sugars workers got no increase and they continue to be underpaid by the estate.
He believes that the sector would see better performance if workers are given better pay
“Under the APNU government, the sugar workers did not get an increase for five years. The value that is being paid now people could hardly work for that because it is the minimum wage. They have to pay people better and that will attract and encourage them,” he opined.
Last week, GuySuCo announced that it was inviting persons to invest in some 25 per cent of the corporation’s lands to plant sugar cane and supply it to their Albion, Blairmont, Rose Hall, and Uitvlugt estates, according to a request for Expressions of Interest.
“The Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) invites eligible, qualified and experienced individuals, companies or consortiums to indicate their interest in cultivating and delivering sugar canes to the factories in a private sector managed arrangement,” the notice stated.
“The lands to be cultivated are owned and or controlled by GuySuCo and authorization will be granted to the successful parties to produce sugar canes. On these designated lands, the private sector is expected to harvest and deliver the sugar canes to the factories at Albion, Rose Hall, Blairmont and Uitvlugt Estates,” it adds.
Since the report, government has been silent on the decision.
This newspaper had reached out to Acting Chairperson of GuySuCo, Shaleeza Shaw, who had pointed to Chief Executive Officer, Sasenarine Singh. When contacted, he explained that “it is a policy decision and the best person to answer questions would be the Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha.” Several calls were made and messages sent to the minister and all went unanswered.
However, sources told the Sunday Stabroek that “even for the estates that currently exist, persons are not taking up the jobs and it is becoming more and more difficult to execute planned works.”
GuySuCo’s notice also informs that approximately 5,000 hectares or 12,300 acres of temporarily abandoned lands are available in blocks to the successful applicants.
The minimum size of each block will be 400 hectares or 1,000, acres.
The corporation stated that “Multiple blocks may be allocated to individuals, companies or consortiums who have demonstrated the competency, experience, resources and scope necessary to do so.”
Terms of Reference will be given to interested applicants which will inform of their requirements in terms of light land clearing, tillage and planting, cane husbandry operations, drainage and irrigation within their allocation, and harvesting and delivery of sugar canes to the factories.
Compulsory
A compulsory requirement is that applicants provide information which proves that they have the required experience, equipment, manpower, and financial capabilities to “embark on this undertaking within their respective allocated blocks.”
The invitation for private farmers represents yet another initiative to salvage the industry from the dire circumstances it has encountered over the last 15 years. Many of these, including attempts at privatization, have ended in failure leaving the industry in need of more and more state subventions.
In early August, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had met with sugar workers, private cane farmers, and members of the National Cane Farmers’ Committee, in Region Three. It is unclear if at that meeting persons had expressed any desire to have access to increased lands for farmers.
The notice did not give a breakdown of where the available lands are but many private cane farmers already supply the Uitvlugt sugar estate.
Private sugar cane farming had been negatively affected when the APNU+AFC closed Wales and three other estates.
In 2018, GuySuCo had reported that it had made 4,200 hectares available to be leased to private cane farmers and over half was already being used. There has been no update on if the remainder was ever taken or the status of that programme.
“One of the things we want to do is to bring more cane farmers on board and this is part of that and our Uitvlugt Improvement Programme,” then GuySuCo spokeswoman Audreyanna Thomas had informed.
She had indicated that out of the 4,200 hectares made available for lease, 2,800 hectares have been already occupied by some 77 cane farmers.
But in July of 2020, four years after the closure of the Wales sugar estate, it was revealed that the 774 private farmers who supplied the factory with cane were also affected. And while many had to find other alternatives to provide for their livelihoods, a few had told this newspaper that they were hanging on and turned to supplying the Uitvlugt sugar estate. This was although they had been cultivating less than a quarter of the acreage that they were allocated when the Wales estate closed.
Some had abandoned the enterprise altogether and had sold off their acres of land, or rented them out. Others said that they had no other choice but to leave them bare, financially unable to engage in cultivation.
Meanwhile, those deciding to weather the storm had not only had to cut back on the amount produced, but they had to cut back on labourers also, forcing those persons to seek jobs elsewhere.
Then last year, the PPP/C announced that as part of its efforts to revitalise the sugar industry, it would be looking into a small-business initiative for cane farmers which will allow them to have access to small loans to invest in their farms.
